Iíve been a Vonage customer for over a year and a half. Generally Iíve been happy with the service. However lately, since Iíve been using Vonage Softphone I have been receiving automated calls from a computer based calling program. The calls come into a number that has never been given out. The calls come every 5 minutes or so. The call program leaves a voicemail every time. Some days this happens over 40-50 times in a 24 hour period. This never happened when I was using Vonage without Softphone. Obviously this is very disruptive.

Iíve called Vonage to report the problem, however they are unable to do anything about it since there is an actual phone number associated with the calls and Vonage can only block ďanonymous calls.Ē Vonage has also been unwilling to investigate or take any action against the company providing the phone number for the caller. This is disappointing since Vonage should do something to prevent against fraud perpetrated against its customers on its lines.

Iíve also done some research, the work that Vonage didnít want to do, and discovered that the number that is calling me is managed by Embarq. The number is: (850) 622-9114. Iíve called their customer service, (800) 339-1811, and they acknowledge that one of their customers owns the number. So far, they too have been unable to stop the calls.

The number, (850) 622-9114, originates in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Iíve tried calling it back but it is always busy. Embarq has customer information for the number but they will not release it to me. At present, I am trying to report the caller to the Santa Rosa Beach Sherriff Department, (850) 267-2000, and press charges. However, they too seem unwilling to do much about it or even return phone calls, even though both Vonage and Embarq have told me that the best route to solving the issue is to go to the police. Embarq has indicated that they will release the callerís customer information to the police.

The repeated calls from (850) 622-9114 have rendered my Vonage Softphone service unusable. Since Iíve never given out the number that is being called, I donít know how the caller got it. However perhaps Vonage is selling its customer phone numbers to third party marketing firms or something like that in order to raise money? Or perhaps there is some larger security breach? This is actually the second time this has happened using Vonage Softphone. The first time it became so disruptive that I had to change my phone number Ė which is obviously another inconvenience and creates a charge to me for setting up a new account. I am posting this here in order to see if I am the only person who has had this experience. Or if there are others, and what, if anything, they have done to resolve the issue. If you too have been receiving calls from an automated service from a number that is visible, like (850) 622-9114, please reply here.

I am not sure of the next step but I will be happy to let Vonage know that there are others who have had a similar experience. Maybe if there are enough of us they will do something to either investigate, press charges against the caller, or improve their software to allow for specific number blocking.

It seems that someone else may have had your number before you did. The simple way to fix this would seem to be to change your soft phone number to "anything" else. That should not be that big a deal, particualrly if you didn't give it to anyone.

Thanks - I actually had to change it once in June for the same reason. I did speak to Vonage Executive Office Support and (finally) the Sheriff's department in Santa Rosa Beach, FL and they are looking into it.

Changing the Softphone number is a good option, however having to do it frequently is not so good. That said, I was told that I would get a "new and un-recycled" number if I change it again. Vonage wants me to keep the current number for the next few days to see if they can resolve the issue. It took some trying but I've got a good support person now and we're working on it.